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Irish Times
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The Gatsby Gambit: Spin-off whodunit is a marketer's dream and a literary reader's nightmare
The Gatsby Gambit Author : Claire Anderson-Wheeler ISBN-13 : 9781408748510 Publisher : Renegade Books Guideline Price : £16.99 There's something off about The Gatsby Gambit's epigrams . One draws from the children's classic Harriet the Spy ('to yourself you must always tell the truth'); the other from Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, warning of glamour's capacity to conceal evil. Yet the novel responds more directly to The Great Gatsby 's weary observation that the best thing a girl can be is 'a pretty little fool'. It's this idea that Anderson-Wheeler attempts to subvert through the character of Greta Gatsby, Jay's 21-year-old sister, who serves as narrator. Newly graduated from finishing school, Greta arrives in East Egg sporting a fresh bob, harem pants and a desire to 'learn something about the world besides the art of watercolour'. While she proves as charming and persistent as her brother, she lacks Nick Carraway's poetic sensibility as a memoirist. To her, Jay is simply 'drawn to women who were either hard to please or hopelessly unavailable', while Nick is 'quieter than the others and less prone to smiling'. In this spin-off story, Nick, Jordan Baker and a cast of Buchanans have moved into the Gatsby mansion for an extended stay. When a gunshot goes off at the end of the first chapter, Greta transforms from schoolgirl to sleuth in order to discover who's responsible for the killing. As she searches for clues in gambling dens and high-society soirées, she teams up with Carraway, with whom she shares a certain spark. READ MORE I'll be clear: The Gatsby Gambit isn't a homage to The Great Gatsby; it's an imitation of Agatha Christie written at Fitzgerald's expense. The novel uses Gatsby as set dressing for an utterly straightforward whodunit. [ Dazzling tragedy of The Great Gatsby still stalks the American imagination Opens in new window ] Though Greta's feminist leanings and class consciousness hint at fresh perspectives, they never materialise; the novel substitutes Fitzgerald's enchanting exploration of desire, class and country with ethical absolutism, replacing his characters' yearning with disillusionment. Its prose is perfectly serviceable but Greta's descriptions of the Jazz Age feel more researched than realistic. The result is a marketer's dream – and a literary reader's nightmare. In a way, The Gatsby Gambit ironically creates what a downcast Nick Carraway briefly wishes for at the very beginning of the original novel, something that Fitzgerald rallied against: a tepid world 'in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever'.
South China Morning Post
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Another great Gatsby, Jay's sister Greta, has a murder to solve in The Gatsby Gambit
If you polled 100 people about who is the most awful among the awful people in The Great Gatsby, I bet 99 of them would answer 'that louse Tom Buchanan'. In the new book The Gatsby Gambit, Buchanan finally gets what's coming to him. Advertisement Daisy Buchanan's loathsome husband is murdered early on in Claire Anderson-Wheeler's mystery novel that is timed to capitalise on the centenary of The Great Gatsby, which fell on April 10, 2025. North Dakotan-turned-dreamy-poor-little-rich-boy Jay Gatsby is around in The Gatsby Gambit, but the new book's protagonist is his hitherto unknown sister, Greta. Her name, you'll note, is an anagram of 'Great' and, between her wit and her insightful suspicion of her brother's dissolute pals, the character is indeed another great Gatsby. With F. Scott Fitzgerald's timeless characters now in the public domain, we are getting lots of fresh takes on them, including several graphic novel versions, a book called Nick that puts The Great Gatsby's narrator Nick Carraway at its centre, and a comic book that pits Jay Gatsby against Godzilla in Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre. Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchanan and Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker in a still from The Great Gatsby (2013). Photo: Warner Bros Anderson-Wheeler isn't the stylist that Fitzgerald was – not many are – but she understands his characters. That understanding informs The Gatsby Gambit, which smartly recognises that star-crossed lovers Jay and Daisy were never meant to be, even with Tom conveniently out of the picture. Advertisement Anderson-Wheeler also knows that happiness may never be on the cards for any of these characters, despite their wealth and beauty.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Book Review: Claire Anderson-Wheeler pays homage to Fitzgerald with mystery 'The Gatsby Gambit'
It takes more than a little verve to write a story based on the iconic characters created by F. Scott Fitzgerald in perhaps the 20th century's most famous American novel, but Claire Anderson-Wheeler has done just that with 'The Gatsby Gambit.' And, say, old sport, it's delightful. Fans of 'The Great Gatsby' — Penguin Classics is publishing a 100th anniversary edition in conjunction with Anderson-Wheeler's new work — will delight in seeing their old friends again. Jay Gatsby is here, of course, but also Nick Carraway, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker. They are joined by Anderson-Wheeler's invention, Jay's sister Greta, back from finishing school and spending the summer at the mansion in West Egg. She's the real star of the story, which after re-introducing readers to Fitzgerald's cast, quickly takes a tragic turn. Saying more about the tragedy would spoil the reading experience, but suffice it to say that it fits perfectly with the story Anderson-Wheeler wants to tell — about a young woman with extraordinary means who is awakening to the inequities of the 1920s America she inhabits. She moves easily between the wealthy partygoers at her brother's famous lawn parties and the servants who meet their every need, which puts her in perfect position to become a youthful version of Miss Marple, following every lead to solve the book's central mystery. Anderson-Wheeler writes in a voice that is fun to read, even as she stays true to the character traits Fitzgerald created a century ago. Here's a moment in Greta's head: 'It was fortuitous, Greta reflected, that the future of women's liberation did not depend solely on Daisy Buchanan.' Or Jordan, as she pushed "the duck confit morosely around her plate: Murder investigations aren't half so much fun as I thought they'd be.' Fitzgerald scholars may find it all frivolous — nothing but fan fiction that effectively negates the plot of the original — but readers who either don't care about that or who just want to spend more time with these characters will be rewarded. In the end, it's an homage, right down to the green handkerchief Nick waves as his train departs for Manhattan at novel's end: '(Greta) realized then what it reminded her of: the Buchanans' green beacon across the sound… It had always looked so magical, so beautiful, the otherworldly flicker of some ever-receding dream.' ___ AP book reviews: Rob Merrill, The Associated Press
Associated Press
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Book Review: Claire Anderson-Wheeler pays homage to Fitzgerald with mystery 'The Gatsby Gambit'
It takes more than a little verve to write a story based on the iconic characters created by F. Scott Fitzgerald in perhaps the 20th century's most famous American novel, but Claire Anderson-Wheeler has done just that with 'The Gatsby Gambit.' And, say, old sport, it's delightful. Fans of 'The Great Gatsby' — Penguin Classics is publishing a 100th anniversary edition in conjunction with Anderson-Wheeler's new work — will delight in seeing their old friends again. Jay Gatsby is here, of course, but also Nick Carraway, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker. They are joined by Anderson-Wheeler's invention, Jay's sister Greta, back from finishing school and spending the summer at the mansion in West Egg. She's the real star of the story, which after re-introducing readers to Fitzgerald's cast, quickly takes a tragic turn. Saying more about the tragedy would spoil the reading experience, but suffice it to say that it fits perfectly with the story Anderson-Wheeler wants to tell — about a young woman with extraordinary means who is awakening to the inequities of the 1920s America she inhabits. She moves easily between the wealthy partygoers at her brother's famous lawn parties and the servants who meet their every need, which puts her in perfect position to become a youthful version of Miss Marple, following every lead to solve the book's central mystery. Anderson-Wheeler writes in a voice that is fun to read, even as she stays true to the character traits Fitzgerald created a century ago. Here's a moment in Greta's head: 'It was fortuitous, Greta reflected, that the future of women's liberation did not depend solely on Daisy Buchanan.' Or Jordan, as she pushed 'the duck confit morosely around her plate: Murder investigations aren't half so much fun as I thought they'd be.' Fitzgerald scholars may find it all frivolous — nothing but fan fiction that effectively negates the plot of the original — but readers who either don't care about that or who just want to spend more time with these characters will be rewarded. In the end, it's an homage, right down to the green handkerchief Nick waves as his train departs for Manhattan at novel's end: '(Greta) realized then what it reminded her of: the Buchanans' green beacon across the sound… It had always looked so magical, so beautiful, the otherworldly flicker of some ever-receding dream.'
